For over three weeks, a campaign has been underway to vilify all police officers following the wrongful act of one former cop in Minneapolis. Calls to abolish the police or to defund the police, as irrational as this is, have become the latest rallying cry among the left.

This misguided and dangerous effort, understandably, has begun to take its toll on the morale of police officers across the U.S., who are resigning in large numbers. The “blue flu” has taken hold and it will continue to spread until some sanity returns to government leaders. The “blue flu” is defined as a strike action, especially among police officers, in which workers are absent on the pretext of sickness.

Can anyone blame them? Why would a police officer continue to report to a dangerous, and now thankless, job when half the country is insulting them on a daily basis? How far did the left think they could really push this crusade against police officers before they would say, ‘we’ve had enough’?

The situation was exacerbated on Wednesday after Atlanta District Attorney Paul Howard Jr. announced 11 charges against police officer Garrett Rolfe in the shooting death of Rayshard Brooks which include a felony murder charge. I have never worked in law enforcement, but felony murder?

During his announcement, Howard coolly told the court that the possible sentences for someone convicted of a felony murder would include life in prison, life with the possibility of parole or the death penalty.

Many who have worked in law enforcement believe Rolfe was overcharged. The circumstances of George Floyd’s death differ vastly from those of Brooks’ death. Even Geraldo Rivera (who is, by the way, actually a lawyer!) believes Rolfe was overcharged by a “politically-challenged” district attorney.

Civil rights lawyer Leo Terrell and Fox News contributor Dan Bongino, who once served as an NYPD officer and then as a Secret Service officer, both vehemently disagreed with Howard’s charging decision as well.

Fox News Judge Napolitano calls it at “catastrophic mistake.”

What makes Howard’s decision even more egregious is that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the agency with jurisdiction in the case, hadn’t completed its own investigation yet. GBI issued a statement on Facebook which read:

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation was requested by the Atlanta Police Department on Friday night, June 12th, to investigate an officer involved shooting at the Wendy’s Restaurant on University Avenue. We are in the process of conducting this investigation. Although we have made significant progress in the case, we have not completed our work. Our goal in every officer involved shooting case we are requested to review, is to complete a thorough, impartial investigation before we submit the file to the respective District Attorney’s Office.

The GBI was not aware of today’s press conference before it was conducted. We were not consulted on the charges filed by the District Attorney. Despite today’s occurrence, the GBI will complete its mission of completing an impartial and thorough investigation of this incident and we will submit the file, once completed, to the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office.

Following Howard’s announcement, the blue flu struck the APD in earnest. A large number of officers called in sick shortly before a shift change Wednesday evening.

As rumors began to spread on social media, the APD tried to downplay them with the following statement.

Earlier suggestions that multiple officers from each zone had walked off the job were inaccurate. The department is experiencing a higher than usual number of call outs with the incoming shift. We have enough resources to maintain operations & remain able to respond to incidents.

— Atlanta Police Department (@Atlanta_Police) June 18, 2020

And Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told CNN, “We do have enough officers to cover us through the night. Our streets won’t be any less safe because of the number of officers who called out.”

(Note: In her first public remarks about Brooks’ death last weekend, Bottoms called for Rolfe’s termination and said, “While there may be debate as to whether this was an appropriate use of deadly force, I firmly believe that there is a clear distinction between what you can do and what you should do. I do not believe that this was a justified use of deadly force.” What a way to incite a riot!)

But many insist the walkout is real.

Fox News reporter Johnny Jones tweeted the following:

And they won't be the last. 99% of LEOs are good ppl who uphold their oath & do a thankless job. Why would they continue to do it if they're receiving even more hate? While being shamed & smeared for the actions of a few bad apples? I mean would you do that job? #RayshardBrooks

— Fmr. Sheriff Mark Curran 🇺🇸 (@ElectMarkCurran) June 18, 2020

Text from APD officer:

“I can confirm the walk-off is real. Whole shifts have left and overnight shifts are refusing to come in”

— Johnny (Joey) Jones (@Johnny_Joey) June 18, 2020

Others agreed:

Just got this email from an Atlanta police officer:

"Atlanta police officers are refusing to answer the radio and walking off of the job. The county can go screw themselves. If you want a society without police we’ll give you one. Let it burn!"

— Steve Deace (@SteveDeaceShow) June 17, 2020

My contacts in the Atlanta Police Department inform me that members from evening shift Zone 4 walked off the job shortly followed by Officers in Zone 3 and 6. The good members of the @Atlanta_Police will not stand for @FultonCountyDA’s activism in place of applying the law. https://t.co/PDWZNgFeXb

— Rob O'Donnell (@odonnell_r) June 17, 2020

I listen to the police scanners for a hobby and I have never seen as many listeners as there are right now it ATL, over 12k. Usually its under 100 listeners. Also, zero activity on the usually active ATL scanner. Did dispatchers walk off too??

— GirlTraderX (@AmyBriceX) June 18, 2020

How long did the left think they could keep attacking the police before they would resign? 

The situation in Atlanta is in the spotlight right now, but the truth is that officer resignations have increased throughout the country.

In Minneapolis, the epicenter of the crusade against the police, seven MPD officers have resigned and seven others are in the process of resigning.

On Wednesday night, Fox LA’s Bill Melugin reported he’d heard from multiple LAPD sources that more than forty transit officers assigned to MTA didn’t show up to work on Wednesday. On Monday, he wrote that 43 didn’t show up. The overtime necessary to deal with the riots and widespread looting in the city has apparently strained the LAPD budget, leaving them unable to pay their officers.

Last week, The Washington Examiner’s Kerry Picket reported that a large number of NYPD officers “say they are ready to leave the force, claiming no one has their backs amid nationwide efforts to restrict law enforcement.”

On Sunday, former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik told Fox News that “hundreds of NYPD officers are leaving the force out of frustration with the department’s treatment of the city’s law enforcement.” Kerik added that an NYPD sergeant had said, “The rumor is over 600 went to pension. I have less uniformed cops by me.”

There have been reports that 911 calls are not being answered in Charleston, SC and other U.S. cities. And people have reported longer than usual response times.

The Democrats are responsible for this. They have thrown their full support behind Black Lives Matter’s call to defund the police. Many even support abolishing the police. Anything that hurts America is okay by them.

The left’s nonstop agitation has taken a toll on our country. For the first time in my life, I worry about America’s future. How much? Enough to sign up for a gun safety class, which is a requirement for a gun permit in my state.